Written Answers Wednesday 10 February 2010

Scottish Executive

2014 Commonwealth Games

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions the (a) First Minister, (b) Minister for Culture and External Affairs and (c) Minister for Public Health and Sport have had with the 2014 Commonwealth Games organisers since 1 January 2009; what topics were discussed, and what the arrangements are for co-ordinating plans across local and national government in the run up to 2014.

Shona Robison: Both the First Minister and I meet the Glasgow 2014 Organising Committee frequently as part of the governance arrangements that are in place to deliver the 2014 games. These meetings have a strong focus on important games issues such as financial scrutiny, risk management, integrated planning and security.

  There have been three Ministers for Europe, External Affairs and Culture since 1 January 2009, none of whom have had meetings with the OC in that time. The Minister for Culture and External Affairs actively supports the development of a broad suite of cultural activity ensuring 2014 provides a lasting legacy and greater accessibility for all of Scotland’s communities.

  Preparations for staging the games are co-ordinated across all of the games partners, including the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council. The planning arrangements and governance structure were explained in the report published by Audit Scotland in November 2009 (Bib. number 49708) although considerable progress has been made in implementing the recommendations since the time of the study. Separately, the Scottish Government is working closely with COSLA, the 2014 All of Scotland Group and through identified leads in each local authority to ensure that plans are in place to enable the whole of Scotland to benefit from the games being held in Glasgow in 2014.

Alcohol

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the BBC’s recent investigation, the crime reports from Strathclyde Police and the concerns being expressed in the United States of America regarding caffeinated alcoholic drinks, whether it has consulted anyone, in particular the Food Standards Agency, on the ill effects and safety of such products.

Shona Robison: The Scottish Government has reviewed the evidence on caffeinated alcoholic drinks and at present there is no evidence that these products cause particular ill effects or raise specific safety concerns. My officials are in touch with the Food Standards Agency who are of the same view.

  We are aware of the recent call for evidence from manufacturers on the safety of caffeinated alcoholic beverages by US Food and Drug Agency. We will review their findings should they be published and consider whether further research is necessary.

Animal Welfare

Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many horses that may have been exposed to equine infectious anaemia are awaiting testing for the disease.

Richard Lochhead: None.

Animal Welfare

David Whitton (Strathkelvin and Bearsden) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to address the legislative recommendations made in Professor Sir Patrick Bateson’s report, Independent Inquiry into Dog Breeding .

Richard Lochhead: Prof. Sir Patrick Bateson’s report makes a number of recommendations which would involve changes to the legislation on the breeding and sales of dogs, and the Dangerous Dogs Act. Rather that take action at this stage to legislate, the Scottish Government intends to work with the Kennel Club and its Dog Health Group, which now has a broader remit, additional independent experts and under an independent chairman, to make the changes necessary to improve the health and welfare of dogs.

  The Kennel Club will encourage all dog breeders to participate in the Accredited Breeder Scheme, which Prof. Bateson recognised as close to the ideal model.

  Only if the Kennel Club are unsuccessful in their attempts to improve the health and welfare of dogs, would the Scottish Government consider legislation.

  The Control of Dogs (Scotland) Bill is presently making its way through Parliament. This is a member’s bill but it has been given government support. If passed it will go a considerable way in meeting the recommendation on dangerous dogs in the Bateman Report.

Crime

Gavin Brown (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many direct measures have been issued by procurators fiscal for vandalism in each month since August 2009, broken down by local authority area.

Frank Mulholland: The following table shows the number of charges under Section 52(1) of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 (wilfully or recklessly destroy or damage property), where the initial decision taken by the Procurator Fiscal was to deal with the offending behaviour by means of a direct measure from September to December 2009.

  Court proceedings were taken for 2208 charges during the same period.

  The figures include only those direct measures that were affected by the provisions in the Criminal Proceedings etc (Reform) (Scotland) Act 2007.

  The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) database does not contain information to identify local authority areas and individual jurisdictions do not always match such areas. As a result, the information has been split by Procurator Fiscal Offices.

  Charges: Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995, Section 52(1) - Direct Measures Issued1,2

  

Procurator Fiscal Office
September 2009
October 2009
November 2009
December 2009


Aberdeen
23
10
13
11


Airdrie
4
1
1
3


Alloa
5
4
3
2


Arbroath
2
-
3
2


Ayr
2
1
5
-


Banff
5
1
1
-


Campbeltown
-
1
1
2


Cupar
3
2
3
2


Dingwall
-
-
2
1


Dornoch
-
1
-
-


Dumbarton
18
5
2
6


Dumfries
2
5
3
4


Dundee
5
3
6
5


Dunfermline
14
18
3
8


Dunoon
-
-
2
2


Duns
-
-
-
2


Edinburgh
10
16
6
10


Elgin
-
-
2
2


Falkirk
6
20
5
8


Forfar
-
1
1
-


Fort William
-
-
2
-


Glasgow
23
21
25
34


Greenock
2
1
3
-


Haddington
-
1
-
2


Hamilton
8
2
6
9


Inverness
2
9
4
24


Jedburgh
-
-
-
3


Kilmarnock
4
4
9
2


Kirkcaldy
14
20
11
7


Kirkcudbright
1
1
-
-


Lanark
1
5
1
-


Lerwick
1
-
1
1


Livingston
9
10
6
2


Lochmaddy
-
-
1
-


Oban
-
-
1
1


Paisley
8
6
9
7


Peebles
1
1
-
-


Perth
3
1
4
2


Peterhead
1
8
5
4


Rothesay
2
2
1
-


Selkirk
11
-
1
-


Stirling
-
2
5
3


Stonehaven
-
-
4
2


Stornoway
1
1
-
1


Stranraer
-
2
1
-


Tain
-
1
-
1


Wick
3
5
1
3



  Notes:

  1. The information in this table has been extracted from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s case management database. The database is a live, operational database used to manage the processing of reports submitted to procurators fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies. If a Procurator Fiscal amends a charge submitted by a reporting agency, the database will record details only of the amended charge.

  2. The database is charge-based. The figures quoted therefore relate to the number of charges rather than the number of individuals charged or the number of incidents that gave rise to such charges.

Finance

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what meetings took place in 2009 between ministers and representatives of the (a) Royal Bank of Scotland, (b) Lloyds Banking Group and (c) Clydesdale Bank regarding their operations in Scotland.

Jim Mather: The detailed information requested is currently being collated and I will write to the member as soon as the information is available and a copy will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 50187).

Fisheries

Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will consult on the proposed amendment to the protected geographical indication status for Scottish farmed salmon; what the timescale for the consultation will be, and who it will consult.

Richard Lochhead: The Scottish Government will consult on the amendment to the Scottish Farmed Salmon PGI once the details of the amendment application are finalised. It will be a 12 week consultation and a wide range of industry and consumers stakeholders will be consulted. The consultation will also be publicly available on the Scottish Government website.

Marine (Scotland) Bill

Robin Harper (Lothians) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Ministers could delegate functions relating to section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 under the provisions of section 42 of the Marine (Scotland) Bill.

Richard Lochhead: Functions under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 are not capable of being delegated under section 42 of the Marine (Scotland) Bill because they are not functions under part 3 of the bill (see section 42(5) of the bill).

Marine (Scotland) Bill

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list those public authorities that will be subject to the duty in section 11(1) of the Marine (Scotland) Bill to take authorisation or enforcement decisions in accordance with the appropriate marine plans unless material considerations indicate otherwise.

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list those public authorities that will be required to comply with the requirements of section 71 of the Marine (Scotland) Bill by virtue of section 71(1) of that bill.

Richard Lochhead: The Scottish Government cannot say definitively which authorities will be covered but does not think that there will be many cases where there will be any real doubt as to whether an authority is covered or not.

Marine (Scotland) Bill

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-30269 by Richard Lochhead on 27 January 2010, whether the group of public authorities to which the Marine (Scotland) Bill will apply will be most similar to the group of bodies defined as public authorities in (a) section 6(3) of the Human Rights Act 1998, (b) section 3 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, or (c) section 322 of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 or defined as public bodies or office-holders in section 58 of the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004.

Richard Lochhead: The Scottish Government is of the view that any authority which is "public" for the purposes of the legislation referred to and which has devolved functions is also likely to be a "public authority" for the purposes of the bill.

Marine (Scotland) Bill

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-30269 by Richard Lochhead on 27 January 2010, whether it will give an example of an act in which the term public authority is undefined that might serve as a precedent to determine the meaning of the expression in the Marine (Scotland) Bill.

Richard Lochhead: Acts frequently refer to public authorities without listing which authorities are covered, or defining them in detail.

  The Human Rights Act 1998 is a good example. It contains no list or basic definition of public authority, and there is case law relative to the meaning of "public authority" in that act.

Prison Service

Willie Coffey (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-28429 by Kenny MacAskill on 5 November 2009, when it last commissioned research into the proportion of (a) young, (b) adult male and (c) adult female prisoners with a communication impairment and what the proportions were at that time.

Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Willie Pretswell, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

  No research has been commissioned into the proportion of (a) young, (b) adult male and (c) adult female prisoners with communication impairment.

  However, in 2003 work undertaken by Motherwell College, the education provider at HMYOI Polmont suggested that 26% male young offenders had clinically significant communication impairment and 70% of had difficulties with literacy and numeracy.

Prison Service

Willie Coffey (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-28430 by Kenny MacAskill on 5 November 2009, what plans it has to increase the resources devoted to meeting the needs of (a) young, (b) adult male and (c) adult female prisoners with a communication impairment.

Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Willie Pretswell, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

  There are no current plans to increase the resources devoted to meeting the needs of (a) young, (b) adult male and (c) adult female prisoners with communication impairment.

Prison Service

Willie Coffey (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-28429 by Kenny MacAskill on 5 November 2009, what plans it has to amend the initial screening process for (a) young, (b) adult male and (c) adult female prisoners entering the criminal justice system to identify those with a communication impairment.

Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Willie Pretswell, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

  The approach to literacy alerting and screening for all prisoners is currently being reviewed in conjunction with Learning Connections, the national agency for literacy and numeracy. Literacy is a component of communication impairment.

Prison Service

Willie Coffey (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to ensure that all professionals working with (a) young, (b) adult male and (c) adult female prisoners with a communication impairment receive communication skills training.

Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Willie Pretswell, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

  Literacy support to all prisoner groups is provided by staff appointed by service providers under contract or agreement. Under these arrangements it is a requirement that staff are appropriately qualified and competent.

Prison Service

Willie Coffey (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what research it has commissioned into the extent to which dealing with prisoners’ communication impairments reduces the rate of reoffending.

Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Willie Pretswell, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

  The SPS have not commissioned any specific research into this area.

Waste Management

Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that landfill gas has a role in energy generation and, if so, how it plans to support this role.

Richard Lochhead: Landfill is at the bottom of the waste hierarchy, this is reflected in the draft of Scotland’s Zero Waste Plan where waste prevention, minimisation and recycling are given greater prominence. Nevertheless, it is recognised that the journey towards a Zero Waste society in Scotland will not happen overnight and that landfill has a continued role to play in the short to medium term.

  In situations where landfill cannot be avoided, recovery and utilisation of gas is encouraged. A continued incentive to recover and utilise landfill gas for electricity generation is provided within the Renewables Obligation (Scotland) Order 2009 where generation of electricity from landfill gas attracts 0.25 SROCs (Scottish Renewable Obligation Certificates) per megawatt hour.

Waste Management

Ross Finnie (West of Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason it encouraged Inverclyde and other councils to trial a food collection service for a year but offered no funding for its continuation and carried out no evaluation of the trial.

Richard Lochhead: The trial was implemented to assess the costs, feasibility and effectiveness of food waste collections. In addition the trial provided an opportunity to compare and evaluate the pros and cons of a food waste collections against food and garden waste collections. All participating local authorities were aware of the fact that this was a trial and was not meant to be long term arrangement.

  Over the period 2008-09 to 2010-11 Scottish Government is providing local authorities across Scotland with £80 million from the Zero Waste Fund. Whilst it is for local authorities to decide how to allocate this funding they can of course direct this towards the roll-out of food waste collections should they wish to do so.

Waste Management

Ross Finnie (West of Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that it can achieve the objectives of its zero waste policy without providing financial support to allow local authorities to establish long-term food waste collection services.

Richard Lochhead: £80 million of Zero Waste funding will be allocated to local authorities over the 2008-09 to 2010-11 period. It is Scottish Government’s view that the overall funding provided is sufficient to achieve recycling and landfill targets. It for local authorities to decide how best to deploy resources to achieve these goals.

  You will appreciate that I am not in a position to comment on funding arrangements beyond 2010-11.

Weather

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive on what dates between 1 December 2009 and 8 January 2010 the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing was present at meetings in the Scottish Government Resilience Room.

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive on what dates between 1 December 2009 and 8 January 2020 a substitute for the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing was present at meetings in the Scottish Government Resilience Room.

Nicola Sturgeon: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-30917 on 9 February 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

  http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.